Card holder



Sept 5? E33., F. L.. WASSELL,

CARD vHOLDER Filed Aug. 15, l1.931

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Patented Sept. 5, 1933 CARD HOLDER Frank Lloyd Wassell, Buffalo,

N. Y., assignor to Remington Rand Inc., Buffalo, N. Y. Application August 13, 1931. Serial No. 556,844 5 Claims. (Cl. 12S-16.7)

This invention relates to card index units including record cards, adapted to bear index and ,reference indicia, and holders or pockets for the cards adapted to so support them that the index or record matter may be readily examined or consulted.

Card holders or pockets of this general type have heretofore comprised sheets of paper, of approximately the size of the record cards, having means for securing the cards thereto and means for engaging a record tray or container to support said holders and cards in overlapping, offset relation to each ot/her so that one edge of each card, which may contain index indicia, is visible beneath the edge of a superposed card holder.

In many offices, such as those in merchandizing houses and banks one card is devoted to the ac.- count of each customer or patron. Certain accounts are used frequently, necessitating the use of all the space on one card while other accounts, usually a substantial number are relatively inactive and require few entries and correspondingly little card space. To assure proper indexing and also to care for expansion it is necessary, however, that a separate card be used for each account, and for these reasons the les become crowded and require an excessive amount of space, even though the majority of the cards contain relatively little reference matter.

The present invention comprehends a new type of card holder or pocket, adapted to receive record cards of different sizes, a large card for large accounts, and one 0r a plurality of smaller cards for less active accounts, the holder providing such support for the Various cards that each may appear in its proper index relation to the other cards and so that each may be readily con-- sulted. Means are also provided for permitting a material addition of smaller cards to the le without increasing the number of card holders.

These and other objects and advantages including those arising from the specific details and arrangement of the parts of the card holders 0r pockets and the record cards adapted to be supported by such holders or pockets, will become apparent from the following description of one typical embodiment of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a plurality of card holders, containing record cards, fitted together in the overlapping, offset relation which they occupy in a file.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of one of the card holders or pockets, with the reference cards removed, and

Fig. 3 is a cross-section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, the reference cards being depicted in mounted relationship upon the holder.

Each holder includes a body and an attaching member or strip 11, extending along and secured, by any suitable means such as the fasteners 12, to a marginal portion 13 of the body 10. The attaching strip extends beyond the side edges of the body and provides lugs for engaging holder-retaining means on a support or tray in a well known manner and, as shown in Fig. 3, has its inner edge 14 deected downwardly to permit of the insertion of the edge of a subjacent holder into nested relationship. The body is perforated as indicated at 15 to form a hinge connection with the marginal portion 13 so that a holder or holders may be raised to provide access to subjacent members.

Over the opposite marginal portion of the body 10 is secured, by fasteners 16 or other suitable means, a transparent sheath 17, preferably formed of V-shape, with one leg in contact with the bottom surface of the body 10 and the other leg overlying the upper surfaceof the body. Diagonal slots 18 are formed adjacent the opposite side portions in the central part of the body between hinge 15 and sheath 17, dividing the body 10 into a pair of adjacent card-supporting sections 19 and 20.

The sect-ion 19 is adjacent hinge 15 While section 20 includes the portion having slots 18 and extending to the free margin of body 10 carrying sheath 17. The section 20 provides a support for a large record card 2l having one margin engaged between the upper leg of sheath 17 and the free margin of body 10 or section 20, and the opposite corners engaged in slots 18.

Smaller index or reference cards 22, illustrated as being approximately one-half the width oi the card 21, are provided with laterally extending tongues 23 which may be inserted in apertures 24 which occur in the body immediately beneath the hinge apertures 15 in section 19, for the purpose of attaching the cards to the holder. Each card 22 has-a plurality of apertures 25 for receiving the tongues or attaching protuberances 23 of a superposed card 22. As shown at the right-hand side of Fig. l, several cards 22 may in this manner be joined to form a flexible chain capable of being raised topermit viewing thc vcard 21 disposed therebeneath. The apertures 25 are preferably formed as close to the bottom marginal edges of the cards 22 as is practicable in order that the maximum amount of space on each card 22 may be utilized.

In use, the holders may be placed in a supl porting tray or container in overlapped, oiTset relation to each other, as shown in Fig. 1, with the upper marginal portion of each engaged between the body 10 and depending portion 14 of the attaching strip of a superjacent holder. This supports the card holders in olset overlapping relation with the free marginal portions in vislll) ible indexed relation. Alargc reference card 21 may be placed on section20 of each holder dened by the upper card edge retaining means 18 and the lower card edge retaining means 17. The active accounts of clients or patrons may be recorded on these cards 21, and index guide indicia, such as the name or number of the account may be placed on the lower margin of each card 21, such indicia being at all times visible through the transparent sheaths 17 because of the offset relationship of the adjacent card holders.

Small or relatively inactive accounts may be recorded on the smaller cards 22 and these cards mounted on section 19 of the card holders so that the name or number of the account or accounts which may be printed or written on the card or cards 22, will be in proper index sequence with respect to the names or numbers on the cards 21. The cards 22 having their tongues 23 detachably interlocked in openings 24 or 25 will overlie section 19 and lie in adjacent relation to cards 21 so that the entire faces of these cards will be visible for reference purposes.

Additional cards 22 may then be attached in chains to the cards 22 attached to section 19 as shown in Fig. 1, where a number of small accounts accumulate in the index without reindexing the cards in several holders or adding additional card holders, and these additional cards will overlie portions of cards 21, but are readily raised to expose the portion of cards 21 which they obscure. However, in employing only the rst two of the smaller cards in alignment across the upper portion of the holder, it is not necessary to raise any of the cards in inspecting the data thereon when the holder is exposed for examination and accordingly, at least twice as many smaller' cards as larger ones are fully visible for recording data upon each card holder.

This arrangement is convenient because the top of the card 21 and the bottom ,ofl the Afirst two cards'2`2are substantially coincident.

The'holders are adaptable to various proportions of small to large ac unts, \since as many small cards as are necessary can be placed on each holder.

The holders and cards are economical of ling space since thesmaller cards, which may preponderate over the large cards in number, occupy only the small section of each holder between the hinge means and the retaining means 18 for the upper edge of a large card 21. It will also be understood that the total number of card holders need not be increased for the addition of small cards 22 but only for the addition of large cards 21. When the addition of a large card necessitates correction of the numerical or alphabetical sequence of small cards, this may be accomplished merely by detaching certain of the small cards 22 from a chain of such cards or from a holder and attaching them to the newly inserted holder.

It will further be understood that the herein described embodiment is merely illustrative of principles which may be applied to devices of diierent structural composition within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A holder for a plurality of reference cards, comprising a body having a hinged marginal portion along one edge thereof adapted to engage holder-supporting means, said body having a pair of adjacent card-supporting sections, one' of said sections lying adjacent the hinged marginal portion and the other of said sections lying adjacent the opposite marginal edge portion of the body, each of said sections having card-retaining means thereon, the card-retaining me'ans of the second-mentioned section comprising means along said opposite marginal edge iortion and means adjacent the first-mentioned section, said last-mentioned means individualizing said sections.

2. A holder for a plurality of reference cards, comprising a body having a hinged marginal portion along one edge thereof, a sheath extending along the opposite edge of the body for receiving one edge of a card, said body having a plurality of cuts adjacent the sides of the body and between said edges for receiving opposite edge portions of said card, and said body having a plurality of sets of openings spaced from said cuts and adjacent the hinged marginal portion for receiving attaching protuberances of other cards.

3. An index device comprising a holder having a body portion provided with hinged attaching means along one edge thereof and card-holding means substantially midway between said edge and the opposite edge of the body, said cardholding means dividing said body into a pair of card-mounting sections extending from the cardholding means to said edges, a reference card engaged by said card-holding means and extending toward said opposite edge, said section between the card-holding means and the first-mentioned edge having means adjacent said first-mentioned edge for attaching a second card, another card attached to said attaching means and extending into adjacency with said card-holding means, said second card having attaching means for attaching a third card thereto.

4, An index device, comprising a holder having a body with a hinged marginal portion'along one edge thereof, card-retaining means lat the opposite edge of the body, means intermediate said edges for engaging an edge portion of a card, and said body having apertures between the intermediate means and the hinged portion .for receiving attaching protuberances of a card,

a card having portions adjacent one edge thereof engaging said card-retaining means and opposite edge portions engaging said intermediate means, and a chain of cards, one of said chain of cards having protuberances engaged in said apertures and extending into adjacency with said intermediate means, and others of said chain of cards extending over said rst-mentioned card.

5. An index device comprising a reference card holder having a hinged marginal portion along one edge thereof, means for supporting the holder along the hinged marginal portion, said holder being divided into a plurality of card-supporting y sections, one of the sections having card-anchoring means at an intermediate portion of the holder and at one edge thereof, a card mounted in the anchoring means with one edge thereof disposed along the anchoring edge of the holder. another of said sections having card-anchoring means, and a plurality of cards supported in the second card-anchoring means with one edge of each offset with respect to the first-mentioned card.

' FRANK LLOYD WASSELL. 

